Pawan Maheshwari: 06/01/2005

Download great Hindu scriptures in PDF format

Upanishad, Bhagavad Gita, Ramcharitmanas, Vishnu Sahasranam, .....

Download great Hindu scriptures

Download great Hindu scriptures in PDF format
Upanishad, Bhagavad Gita, Ramcharitmanas, Vishnu Sahasranam, .....

Download great Hindu scriptures

VIEWPOINTS: THE WORLD AROUND US AND DAILY RANTS

Donelson Research & Publishing

Impressive collection of facts and thoughts..... Read at leisure

World, balance of power, super power's challenge in curtailing emerging powers,
Self Declared Monitor of the world, Democracy, What you say, what you actually mean, and what you actually did, misleading yourself and the world. Selling F-16 to A and telling B to help becoming more powerful. Few people, in the name of national interest, misleading their own people, for the sake of their own political goals.... how the common man would understand history 50 years down the line, the invasion in the name of project freedom, hiding the fact of being second highest oil reserve in the world.. the real cause... A game of chess...
Once who bombed each other and created history, are best friends of current times.... Isnt it ugly .... well nothing is permanent and so is the relationship... so are the interests, so are the acts.......... Interesting times to be living in....

"Unlearn what B-school taught you"

Unlearn what B-school taught you:

Business is fundamentally simple. It's we who make it complicated. When you are able to cut to the core, say, peel away the layers to get to the essence, business is quite straightforward. It is essentially about how you create value for the customer and how you are able to capture that value, as much of it, at as low a cost as possible.

What happens over a period of time is that we put several layers around the core essence of business, whether it is at the workplace or a B-school. As a result, we tend to get into a complexity that is our own creation. If you look at some of the great business leaders, they have stuck to or built the core proposition.

They know what value proposition they want to give the customer and single-handedly drive their business towards it in an extremely focussed manner. If you are able to do that, I think half your problem is solved. So cut out all the power points -- if you have something to say, be precise, clear and simple. Take the example of telegrams for which we pay by the word.

Every extra word has a cost to it. Similarly, I strongly believe that there is a cost you pay for complexity. At B-schools or the workplace, people somehow feel that if you are able to complicate things, you are able to create more reason for your existence.

There is a tendency to get seduced by the methodologies and tools and lay on a lot of theories and jargon that complicates matters. You should not fall in love with the tools just because you are using them. Ask yourself: how are these tools going to enable me? Will they assist me in creating and capturing value proposition? If they don't, throw them out.

Having said that however, B-schools do have lessons to teach. The most important thing that a good B-school helps you with is that it brings you in close contact with the best talent in the country. This enhances your mental faculties and stimulates your thinking. If you look at a business, it is fundamentally about theoretical experiences, sitting back and reflecting on those experiences and learning from them.

What you need to do, however, is focus on what value you derive from what you are taught. Often, a lot of students -- or even young professionals, for that matter -- get a high level of comfort in living with the latest buzzwords and jargon. That often holds you back from the truth.

So often in the first 10 years of your career you keep filling ditches. But it's only after you empty those ditches, that is, unlearn a lot of things you have been taught, that you manage to get to the core proposition.

So what is it that we need to succeed in business? First comes hunger; that is, how hungry you are to get to your goal. Even if you are not outstandingly brilliant, but have the hunger to succeed, it makes a lot of difference. As Martina Navratilova put it -- and you don't always have to learn from the Tom Peters and Peter Druckers -- "People who talk about there being no winners or losers are losers themselves."

Whenever I recruit people, I try to find out how hungry they are -- for the job, achieving certain objectives or changing the world. If that drive is there, half the battle is already won. Training, investing in the person and giving him a clear direction come later.

We often talk about the four Ps in business, that is, product, price, place and promotion. It is a standard theme in B-school education -- you learn it everyday. I have realised that there are two more Ps. The fifth P is "people".

According to David Ogilvy, "If you hire people who are better than you, then over a period of time, you will be in the company of giants." On the other hand, if you hire someone smaller than you, and if he hires someone smaller than him, and so on, you'll soon be running a company of pygmies! So to build a sound business, you need to get the best people, both in terms of quality and their hunger to succeed.

The sixth P is "pace". This is particularly relevant when we look at the technology business where products get obsolete every three months. A new technology comes out almost every other year and it changes the playing field. In this industry, the people who succeed are those who unlearn the past quickly and move on to adapt to what the future offers.

It may take two years to get to the point where you think you are absolutely right -- by when you realise that the market has passed you by. So, it is essential that you change all the time, and the faster you change the better it is. That means that you probably need to make some trade-offs in terms of educated guesses and risks.

But then business is all about taking risks. You calibrate the risk to the pay-off. While B-schools talk a lot about risk management, at the end of the day it's the decision (risk) that you take in the real world that counts. These decisions have consequences -- for you, your employees, your company and so on.

But if you don't take those decisions, it can often be a bigger risk. For instance, Intel was initially into memory chips, but then it realised that its business was taking a beating since the technology was fast becoming obsolete. It took a risk and entered the microprocessor business. The risk paid off.

When you are working in large organisations, one of the biggest skills that stands you in good stead is not only knowing how to sell ideas but also sell yourself in the right way.

All B-schools teach you how to sell products -- everything from chewing gum to cars. But no B-school really tells you how to sell yourself. But if you want to be taken seriously, you need to sell yourself to the organisation, to your customers and to the people who work for you.

In a few months of joining an organisation you are branded, which probably stays with you as you climb up the ladder. You must be clear about what kind of brand you want to be.

Ravi Swaminathan is vice president, HP , Personal Systems Group. He is an alumni of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, from where he graduated in 1977

As told to: Amit Ranjan Rai

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Business Standard.... from rediff...

"Unlearn what B-school taught you"

Unlearn what B-school taught you:

Business is fundamentally simple. It's we who make it complicated. When you are able to cut to the core, say, peel away the layers to get to the essence, business is quite straightforward. It is essentially about how you create value for the customer and how you are able to capture that value, as much of it, at as low a cost as possible.

What happens over a period of time is that we put several layers around the core essence of business, whether it is at the workplace or a B-school. As a result, we tend to get into a complexity that is our own creation. If you look at some of the great business leaders, they have stuck to or built the core proposition.

They know what value proposition they want to give the customer and single-handedly drive their business towards it in an extremely focussed manner. If you are able to do that, I think half your problem is solved. So cut out all the power points -- if you have something to say, be precise, clear and simple. Take the example of telegrams for which we pay by the word.

Every extra word has a cost to it. Similarly, I strongly believe that there is a cost you pay for complexity. At B-schools or the workplace, people somehow feel that if you are able to complicate things, you are able to create more reason for your existence.

There is a tendency to get seduced by the methodologies and tools and lay on a lot of theories and jargon that complicates matters. You should not fall in love with the tools just because you are using them. Ask yourself: how are these tools going to enable me? Will they assist me in creating and capturing value proposition? If they don't, throw them out.

Having said that however, B-schools do have lessons to teach. The most important thing that a good B-school helps you with is that it brings you in close contact with the best talent in the country. This enhances your mental faculties and stimulates your thinking. If you look at a business, it is fundamentally about theoretical experiences, sitting back and reflecting on those experiences and learning from them.

What you need to do, however, is focus on what value you derive from what you are taught. Often, a lot of students -- or even young professionals, for that matter -- get a high level of comfort in living with the latest buzzwords and jargon. That often holds you back from the truth.

So often in the first 10 years of your career you keep filling ditches. But it's only after you empty those ditches, that is, unlearn a lot of things you have been taught, that you manage to get to the core proposition.

So what is it that we need to succeed in business? First comes hunger; that is, how hungry you are to get to your goal. Even if you are not outstandingly brilliant, but have the hunger to succeed, it makes a lot of difference. As Martina Navratilova put it -- and you don't always have to learn from the Tom Peters and Peter Druckers -- "People who talk about there being no winners or losers are losers themselves."

Whenever I recruit people, I try to find out how hungry they are -- for the job, achieving certain objectives or changing the world. If that drive is there, half the battle is already won. Training, investing in the person and giving him a clear direction come later.

We often talk about the four Ps in business, that is, product, price, place and promotion. It is a standard theme in B-school education -- you learn it everyday. I have realised that there are two more Ps. The fifth P is "people".

According to David Ogilvy, "If you hire people who are better than you, then over a period of time, you will be in the company of giants." On the other hand, if you hire someone smaller than you, and if he hires someone smaller than him, and so on, you'll soon be running a company of pygmies! So to build a sound business, you need to get the best people, both in terms of quality and their hunger to succeed.

The sixth P is "pace". This is particularly relevant when we look at the technology business where products get obsolete every three months. A new technology comes out almost every other year and it changes the playing field. In this industry, the people who succeed are those who unlearn the past quickly and move on to adapt to what the future offers.

It may take two years to get to the point where you think you are absolutely right -- by when you realise that the market has passed you by. So, it is essential that you change all the time, and the faster you change the better it is. That means that you probably need to make some trade-offs in terms of educated guesses and risks.

But then business is all about taking risks. You calibrate the risk to the pay-off. While B-schools talk a lot about risk management, at the end of the day it's the decision (risk) that you take in the real world that counts. These decisions have consequences -- for you, your employees, your company and so on.

But if you don't take those decisions, it can often be a bigger risk. For instance, Intel was initially into memory chips, but then it realised that its business was taking a beating since the technology was fast becoming obsolete. It took a risk and entered the microprocessor business. The risk paid off.

When you are working in large organisations, one of the biggest skills that stands you in good stead is not only knowing how to sell ideas but also sell yourself in the right way.

All B-schools teach you how to sell products -- everything from chewing gum to cars. But no B-school really tells you how to sell yourself. But if you want to be taken seriously, you need to sell yourself to the organisation, to your customers and to the people who work for you.

In a few months of joining an organisation you are branded, which probably stays with you as you climb up the ladder. You must be clear about what kind of brand you want to be.

Ravi Swaminathan is vice president, HP , Personal Systems Group. He is an alumni of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, from where he graduated in 1977

As told to: Amit Ranjan Rai

Powered by
Business Standard.... from rediff...

From TOI, Need water...

Macro Economics stuff.. Growth, Oil, money, exchange rate, GDP, deficit, Infrastructure... Well a big complex science, bottom line

money changing hands, resulting in growth at one place and depression at other... Why 1 dollar is equal to 43 INR, not the other way round, How many total dollars and total INR around the world, all in paper form or part in virtual form, how and who controls the production/influx of dollar and INR in to the world system, when you transfer 1000$ dollars from USA to India, does this transfer happens in real physical form or it is just a data transfer, stored on a hard disk, subject to crash. I paid 100$ to a lawn keeper for his services, and after few days he paid the same 100$ to bestbuy for a camera, and after a few days, bestbuy pays me the same 100$ for my supply chain consulting services, money has changed hands and resulted in to growth.........seems interesting... I thought that one is rich if he has the abilty to generate more value (not paper money in a printing press..:)..} than what he consumes, but it seems its the other way round... with huge deficits.... :)

comments welcome as always

Transcript of the World Economic Outlook Press Conference, April 13, 2005

Macro Economics stuff.. Growth, Oil, money, exchange rate, GDP, deficit, Infrastructure... Well a big complex science, bottom line
money changing hands, resulting in growth at one place and depression at other... Why 1 dollar is equal to 43 INR, not the other way round, How many total dollars and total INR around the world, all in paper form or part in virtual form, how and who controls the production/influx of dollar and INR in to the world system, when you transfer 1000$ dollars from USA to India, does this transfer happens in real physical form or it is just a data transfer, stored on a hard disk, subject to crash. I paid 100$ to a lawn keeper for his services, and after few days he paid the same 100$ to bestbuy for a camera, and after a few days, bestbuy pays me the same 100$ for my supply chain consulting services, money has changed hands and resulted in to growth.........seems interesting... I thought that one is rich if he has the abilty to generate more value (not paper money in a printing press..:)..} than what he consumes, but it seems its the other way round... with huge deficits.... :)

comments welcome as always

Transcript of the World Economic Outlook Press Conference, April 13, 2005

A good stuff ... just blogging so that can come back again...

Info Baron,Magazine,Ib,Info Baron Magazine,Spire Media,Spire Media Pvt Ltd,Fashion and Life Style Magazine,Fashion and Life Style Magazine in India,Fashion,Life Style,Life,Style,Magazine,Ib,Info Baron,Capital Plus,The News

Check out the history ...

The United States tried in mid-October to build on Foreign Minister Singh's assurance that India would not initiate hostilities by proposing that both sides withdraw their forces from the border to the nearest military bases. (168) Pakistan accepted the proposal but India hedged and said that such a move would leave India at a disadvantage in that Pakistan's bases were closer to the border. Nixon put this proposal to Indira Gandhi when she visited Washington on November 4 as part of her tour of foreign capitals to try to generate support for India's position. He also told her that the United States would find the initiation of hostilities between India and Pakistan to be totally unacceptable. In a stiff meeting, Gandhi denied sponsoring the Mukti Bahini guerrillas and denied that Indian forces were poised to initiate a conflict. In this and in their subsequent meeting on the following day, she failed to respond to Nixon's proposal for a mutual withdrawal. (179, 180) Nixon and Kissinger subsequently discussed the exchanges with Gandhi. Kissinger's assessment was that "the Indians are bastards anyway. They are plotting a war." He felt that Nixon had given her a warm enough reception that she could not complain that the United States was anti-Indian. Nixon agreed. (180)

Summary: check the link for full article

A rocking and kickin ..... Union IT and Telecommunications Minister Dayanidhi Maran

Intel picks India for $400 mn unit: "Union IT and Telecommunications Minister Dayanidhi Maran"

Global chip manufacturer Intel will set up its assembly test manufacturing (ATM) facility in India with an approximate investment of $400 million.

Intel has shortlisted Chennai, Bangalore and Noida as possible locations for setting up of the ATM facility.

"The company will be announcing the decision and the location in the next one month, we expect an investment of about $400 million for Intel's ATM facility," Union IT and Telecommunications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said on Tuesday after his US visit earlier this month to woo IT and telecom majors to set up manufacturing base in India.

American mobile handsets and telecom equipment manufacturers, Flextronics and Solectron are likely to follow Intel in establishing manufacturing bases in India shortly.

An estimated $1-$1.2 billion worth of investments are expected to be pumped into India in the coming months by these three companies alone, Maran said.

He said Intel was previously considering China and Vietnam as possible locations for the facility.

"But after my discussion with Craig Barret, the CEO of Intel said they have finalised on India," he said, adding that he was able to impress upon the chip giant to decide on India over China and Vietnam by presenting the country as a booming market with investor-friendly policies.

"The government policy on special economic zones which gives a 15-year tax-free income, market access, policy of the government to promote computers (at present we have 16 million computers and we are aiming at 75 million computers in the next four years) clinched it in our favour," he said.

In addition, UT Starcom, which supplies switches and modems to BSNL, has also shown interest in setting up a manufacturing unit in India, while Cisco is focussing on extending its R&D operations to India, Maran, who returned from the United States on Saturday, said.

Maran also met Cisco chief John Chambers "who has agreed to explore the option to increase the presence of the company in India."

The minister was keen that semi-conductor fabrication units come up in India, which would be a major growth driver for the Indian hardware industry. His idea was that the country should facilitate the setting up of a 'fab city', a concept about which he plans to write to the states.

He had a meeting with world's biggest semiconductor equipment company -- Applied Material -- as well as IBM, India Electronics Manufacturing Corporation and India Semiconductor Association to set up 90nm/65nm fab in India.

If this idea materialises, it alone could bring in investments worth $3 billion to India, he said.

Hector Ruiz, CEO & Chairman of AMD, also had a detailed meeting with Maran where AMD's plans to bring in low-cost computers in India was discussed.